A Tale of Twos
by doggieearlover
Summary: Bragging on Shippou’s part leads to a night alone for Miroku and Sango and a series of misadventures that they’ll be talking about for years. MirSan InuKag COMPLETE This is a collection of five drabbles/oneshots that together make a single story.
1. Part I: Shippou Makes a Wager

Disclaimers: I do not own InuYasha or any of the manga/anime characters. They belong to the wonderful genius Rumiko Takahashi.

**AN:** This piece is actually a group of drabbles that was the result of the drawble/drabble meme that's going around at LiveJournal. When I started looking at the prompts given by those who claimed them, I had an idea that formed that ending up weaving the five of them together. You will find the name of the requester and the prompt at the beginning of each drabble. I hope you enjoy the combined results.

And thank you very much to inufan625 for the beta job on each of them. As always, it is much appreciated!

**A Tale of Twos  
****Rating**: T  
**Warnings**: Post manga; Sexual Suggestiveness  
**Summary: **Bragging on Shippou's part leads to a night alone for Miroku and Sango and a series of misadventures that they'll be talking about for years.** (**Mir/San; Inu/Kag)

**Part I:** **Shippou Makes a Wager  
**For Paynesgrey (quirkyslayer)  
Prompt: InuYasha/Shippou genfic banter  
Word Count: 1709

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**Part I: Shippou Makes a Wager**

"Fu— fooey! Get off of my ears!" an irate hanyou fussed at Miroku and Sango's over-energetic twin girls. Once again, they'd latched on to his sensitive appendages and wouldn't let go.

"Doggy! Doggy!" the girls screamed together as they tugged in opposite directions.

"Miroku…" InuYasha could put up with a lot, but they were reaching his limits.

They were all distracted by a 'pop' and the sudden appearance of Shippou in his balloon form. "See me! Look up here! The Great Shippou is here to entertain you!"

"Shippou!" the twins cried together, the high pitch and volume of their voices making the hanyou cringe.

"The big strong youkai is here to save you from the big meanie!" the kitsune announced.

"Mean? I'll show you mean. Let's let them pull on your ears for awhile or maybe yank that tail you're so proud of. I'll let them borrow Tessaiga and chop all of the fur off of it. We'll change it from that hairball to something that would embarrass a rat," InuYasha threatened. "That's if they don't accidentally cut it off in the process."

Shippou popped back into his regular form and grabbed at his back, making sure his tail was still intact. Breathing a sigh of relief that everything was as it should be, he countered, "You're just jealous." He threw a handful of acorns that started bouncing and screaming, causing the girls to chase after them. "You're just mad that you can't keep them entertained for hours like I can." The kitsune punctuated his statement by sticking his tongue out at the hanyou.

"Again! Again!" the twins cried in delight as they caught all of the animated acorns and ran back to him with them.

"How about this?" Shippou asked as he pulled out his toy horse and then sent it galloping away, the toddlers close behind it.

"See what I mean?" The kitsune looked at InuYasha and snickered.

InuYasha disagreed, "Feh. You just got here. They'll be bored with you soon enough. I bet you don't last until sundown."

Miroku had remained silent during the exchange, wondering where it was going to go, even if he had to admit he'd been impressed by InuYasha's patience with the active two-year olds.

"Hah! I'll bet I can keep them entertained all night! What do you think, Miroku?" Shippou asked in a tone of voice that made it clear the monk was supposed to agree with him.

"I believe that's a wager I'll take you up on." Miroku stood and brushed off his clothing. "Thank you, Shippou. I'll let Sango know that you are keeping the twins for the night. InuYasha, I trust you'll keep an eye on Shippou to determine who wins the wager?"

"I… what… I didn't agree to this!" the hanyou protested. "Bouzo, get back here!"

All they got was a wave of his hand over his shoulder as they watched the monk's retreating back.

About that time the two children came running back with the toy horse in hand. "Another trick, another trick!" they demanded together.

Shippou frantically started pulling things out of his pockets, trying to decide what to do next. Flustered, he threw his leaves and was surrounded by clones of himself almost instantaneously. As the girls chased the copies, he ran in front of InuYasha, who had turned his back to him and was stretched out on his side with his head resting on his hand. "InuYasha, you gotta help me!"

The hanyou grinned and shook his head. "You're the one that said you could keep them busy all night. Let's see what you learned at that kitsune inn. What kind of tricks do you have that will keep those two occupied?"

"Shippou!" they both heard as the girls caught the last illusion.

"I'm only here to verify that you do what you said you would." InuYasha smirked. "Hey girls! He's over here! Why don't you play 'slay the kitsune'?"

"That's not fair!" Shippou yelped as the twins pounced on him. "It's two against one!"

InuYasha rolled on his back and laced his hands behind his head. "Better you than me." A broad grin crossed his face as he listened to Shippou whine and the girls squeal. This might be fun, after all.


	2. Part II: Parents' Night In

Disclaimers: I do not own InuYasha or any of the manga/anime characters. They belong to the wonderful genius Rumiko Takahashi.

**A Tale of Twos  
****Warnings**: Sexual Suggestiveness

**Part II: ****Parents' Night In  
**for knittingknots  
Prompt: post manga; Miroku/Sango quiet time away from the kids  
Word count: 270

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**Part II: Parents Night In**

"How in the world did you talk Shippou and InuYasha into watching the twins?" Sango asked her husband as she put away the dinner dishes.

Miroku rubbed the back of his neck as a wry grin crossed his face. "Actually, I didn't really have to. Shippou managed to volunteer when he was bragging that he was much better with them than InuYasha is. InuYasha was telling him he wouldn't last until sundown, so Shippou snapped back that he could keep them entertained all night long. I said 'thanks' and took my leave of them."

"You didn't! Just like that?" The taijiya laughed.

Miroku moved behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his chin on her shoulder. He turned his head just enough so that his hot breath caressed her ear, sending a chill down her spine. "I'm not one for looking a gift horse in the mouth."

"What are you thinking?" she asked with a shudder.

"Well, you know three is a lucky number," he whispered into her ear as he slipped his hand inside of her yukata.

"And if I have another set of twins?" she countered, turning into him and allowing him to untie her obi.

He grinned as he pushed her yukata down her shoulders. "Then we'll have to try again."

"Just how many children do you think we should have?" she asked as she helped him out of his robes.

"Well, five and seven are lucky numbers, too. So I'd have to say three, five, or seven. What is your preference, my dear Sango?"

"That you stop talking and kiss me."

"Gladly."


	3. Part III: Use It or Lose It?

Disclaimers: I do not own InuYasha or any of the manga/anime characters. They belong to the wonderful genius Rumiko Takahashi.

**A Tale of Twos  
****Warnings**: Sexual Suggestiveness

**Part III:** **Use It or Lose It?  
**for eggplantlady (lady griddlebone)  
Prompt: Miroku/Sango fluff  
Word count: 420

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**Part III: Use It or Lose It?**

Miroku trailed his hand lightly along his wife's body from her shoulder to the curve of her hip. He was lying alongside her, his head propped on his hand as he watched her chest rise and fall with the gentle rhythm of her breathing. He was debating whether or not to tease her awake when he realized that her eyes had barely cracked open, heavy with sleep.

"Something wrong?" she asked softly. "Are the kids okay?"

The monk smiled at her in return. "I'm sure they are fine. InuYasha is there even if Shippou is theoretically in charge. I was just thinking of how long it's been since we had an evening like this."

"It's so quiet, isn't it? I'd forgotten what it was like not to have to get up several times during the night with the twins. And it could never be just one of them. Once one started, they both did," Sango said, "I can't remember the last time it was this peaceful."

"And the last time we were able to get a full-night's sleep," Miroku added.

Sango snorted. "You mean the last time _I _got a full night's sleep. I don't know how many times you slept right through the feeding and changing. I should have known you wouldn't be much help in that department."

"Now, Sango, you know I was just tired from youkai exterminating, or I had to get up early to go to one. I have to provide for my family, you know. Besides, taking care of the kids—"

"Don't say it if you don't want me to hit you. I know it's a woman's work, but it's hard when there are two of them at the same time," Sango snapped.

"Are you sorry…" his voice trailed away.

Her expression softened. "No, I'm not sorry, but I do get tired, too. I don't have my mother or a sister or anyone to help me like other young families do. But I'd do it all again, just for you."

Miroku allowed his hand to drift from her hip back up to the swell of her breast. Molding his hand around it, he leaned over and whispered, "Then let's continue to work on that, shall we? The girls need a little brother."

Sango smiled as he moved over her. She couldn't help but to reach up and cup the back of his head to draw his lips down to hers in a kiss. It would be a boy this time, she could feel it.


	4. Part IV: Adventures in Babysitting

Disclaimers: I do not own InuYasha or any of the manga/anime characters. They belong to the wonderful genius Rumiko Takahashi.

**A Tale of Twos**

**Part IV:** **Adventures in Babysitting  
**for dreaming_trees (brown_recluse)  
Prompt: Miroku/Sango; stupid things kids do  
Word count: 596

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**Part IV: Adventures in Baby Sitting**

"NO!" Shippou shouted. He suddenly realized that bringing the twins to Kaede's may not have been such a spectacular idea.

InuYasha sat next to the wall and smirked. Shippou would have to clean up the mess they were making. He was just an innocent observer after all.

"Hats!" the girls shrieked when they saw the baskets that Kaede had carefully sorted her herbs into. Without any thought of the contents, they turned them upside down and placed them on their heads. "Wheeeeeee!" they squealed as the herbs floated around them. They had their arms out and were spinning in circles, much as if they were trying to catch snowflakes.

"You need hats, too!" they cried as they each went for another basket.

"No we don't!" Shippou wailed practically in despair as they grabbed the objects of their desire and upended them. Shaking them free of the herbs they contained, they each marched towards the hanyou and kitsune.

InuYasha just grinned and lowered his head to allow the basket to be placed on it. He figured if he was wearing that, they'd leave his ears alone. However… "HaCHOO! Hachoo! Hachoo!" He couldn't stop sneezing from the fine particles that he had managed to inhale.

"Ha! Ha! Ha!" Shippou started before he joined him, "Achoo! Achoo! Aw… man… Foxfire!" Shippou shouted. He thought that would be a good way to take care of the floating pieces of herb.

InuYasha was holding his hand over his nose, though he raised his arm up in front of his face to protect it with his firerat when the kitsune started playing with fire – literally. He smelled smoke and peeked over his forearm. "Uh… Shippou?"

The hanyou swooped over to grab the twins and hold them against his chest, protecting them in the folds of the firerat. "Shippou, you might want to put that fire out now." He tried to remain as calm as possible so as not to frighten the girls.

"Wha' do you mean?" Shippou asked, confused.

"Your 'hat'…" InuYasha nodded towards his head since his hands were full.

"Put it out! Put it out!" the kit panicked when he realized he'd set the basket on his head on fire.

Kaede walked in just in time to see him grab it and throw it into the fire, causing an extraordinary amount of smoke to fill the hut.

The old miko started coughing and waving her hands, trying to clear the air. "What in the world have you been up to? What have you done to my home? I spend most of the night delivering a baby, and I come back to this? Why aren't all of you asleep? It'll be dawn before long!"

"I'm going to let the runt explain this one," InuYasha said, a girl tucked safely under each arm. "I'm taking these two home. It's long past their bed time, anyway. I'd say it would be fair to declare that you lost your bet since the night isn't over yet." With that, the hanyou lowered his head so Kaede could remove the basket from it. Then he ducked through the covering over the door and headed towards Miroku and Sango's hut.

Kaede rounded on Shippou. "A BET? You destroyed my herbs and nearly burned down my hut on a BET???"

"I… I can explain… I was tricked…" Shippou feebly tried to justify the state of her house.

InuYasha couldn't help but to grin as he carried the now sleeping girls back to their parents. The twins may not have been entertained all evening, but he certainly had been.


	5. Part V: To Have and To Hold

Disclaimers: I do not own InuYasha or any of the manga/anime characters. They belong to the wonderful genius Rumiko Takahashi.

**A Tale of Twos  
****Warnings**: Sexual Suggestiveness

**Part V: To Have and To Hold  
**for xgrenade  
Prompt: InuYasha/Kagome; fluff and humor  
Word count: 1209

* * *

**V. To Have and To Hold**

**_Approximately one year later..._**

InuYasha leaned over to poke at the fire under the pot of stew. Kagome had been back for not quite three months now and had invited Miroku and Sango over for dinner. Miroku was sitting across from him, while Sango and Kagome had gone out to get a few more vegetables from Sango's garden.

The two ladies were laughing when they came back in. "I'm sorry, Sango. When I asked you over for dinner, I didn't mean to eat your food! I was so surprised to pull up my carrots and onions, and there was nothing there! And then the rabbit… well, I assume that's where the cabbage went."

"He won't be eating no more," InuYasha muttered. "He looked fat and juicy, though."

Miroku grinned. "I gather at least something good came from your garden, after all? And Sango will have to show you whatever it is that she used to keep the critters from destroying ours. But we're happy to share; we've had a good year so far. Even if we hadn't we couldn't let our friends starve."

The hanyou growled. "Are you saying…" his voice trailed away as a gentle hand laid on his shoulder.

"I think he means that we need vegetables and fruits for a well-rounded diet. I know you would never let me go hungry when there is game or fish to be had." Kagome smiled at him as she dumped the vegetables into the pot. "So what did you two do with the kids tonight?"

Sango sat down next to her husband as she said, "Kisha asked if she could watch them in exchange for a palm reading."

InuYasha snorted. "You're still pulling that scam?"

"My intentions are strictly honorable," Miroku replied. "Besides, would you have rather we brought them with us? The baby and the twins?"

"They're not so bad… most of the time…" he mumbled.

"You know, Kagome, you should have seen InuYasha with the girls when I was pregnant, and even before. He's actually very good with them," Sango said.

"Really?" Kagome perked up and looked at her hanyou.

InuYasha didn't say anything, though his cheeks flushed as he stared at the floor, refusing to meet anyone's eyes.

They barely heard him mutter, "If they just wouldn't pull my ears."

"At least they haven't nearly burned down anyone's hut in your care." The monk grinned, hoping to remind InuYasha of that particular episode.

It worked, because as he looked up a smirk overtook his downtrodden expression. "The runt will never live that one down, will he?"

"What happened?" Kagome asked. The others were all trying not to laugh, and she felt left out.

"Well, you see…" Miroku started the story off by telling Kagome how Shippou was bragging to InuYasha that he was better with the girls than the hanyou was and made the mistake of making a bet he could entertain them all night. Once he explained how it all began, he turned it over to InuYasha.

The hanyou couldn't help but to laugh as he retold the series of events of the evening, which culminated in Shippou allowing a large portion of Kaede's herbs to be destroyed and then nearly setting her hut on fire. The last he saw of Shippou that morning was when he left him shortly before dawn trying to explain what had happened to the old miko after she had returned from delivering a baby. The two girls had fallen asleep when he grabbed them to keep them from being set ablaze by Shippou's 'hat' so he carried them back home.

"Ahhh… but you're leaving something out," Miroku added.

InuYasha flushed and looked at the floor.

The monk continued, "We found him asleep under the tree outside of our hut, one girl tucked in each arm. The three of them looked so innocent that it's hard to believe it was our gruff inu-hanyou and two little hellions."

Kagome smiled and rubbed his arm. "Why didn't you take them and put them to bed?"

"They were… busy…" the hanyou was the color of his firerat.

Even Sango was blushing now.

"We used the opportunity of the night alone to give the girls a little brother," Miroku said, wrapping his arm around Sango and pulling her against him – probably so she couldn't hit him. "But the point I was actually trying to make was that InuYasha will make an excellent father one day."

The hanyou could bear no more and suddenly rose and almost flew out of the hut. He stopped when he heard Kagome cry his name.

"InuYasha!" Kagome jumped up and ran after him. "InuYasha, wait!"

She found him standing at the far edge of her garden, gazing at the trees in his forest. "InuYasha, what is it? What's wrong?"

"I… we… they…" he just couldn't find the words.

The miko took his hand in hers and rubbed his arm with her other, trying to calm him. "Why are you upset, my husband?" she asked softly.

He looked down to meet her eyes and saw only love and concern. He took a deep breath before he started, "They… they… Kagome, we haven't even talked about kids. They're assuming…" he looked back out at the forest.

Kagome squeezed his hand. "InuYasha, don't you want to have children?"

He swallowed. "Yeah… but do you?" He couldn't look at her, afraid of her answer.

She looked at his defeated posture, his ears pinned to his head. Suddenly she realized that as self-confident as he had become since she first met him, inside there was still one very insecure hanyou. "InuYasha," she began but he still wouldn't meet her eyes. She turned loose of his hand and moved in front of him to reach up to cup his face. "InuYasha, I am your wife, and I love you. And that means that when we're ready – when you're ready – we will start a family. I would love nothing more than to have your children."

She was surprised when he squeezed his eyes shut and a tear escaped from one corner. She wiped his cheek with the pad of her thumb before she pulled his face down to hers.

He kissed her softly and then wrapped his arms around her and just held her.

They jumped when they heard, "Hey, guys! We're hungry! I didn't mean make him a father now!"

The couple turned to see Miroku and Sango peering around the corner of the hut, both grinning.

"Why not, Bouzo? It was your idea!" InuYasha called back, making both Kagome and Sango blush.

"Well, if you need any pointers," Miroku started and then yelped. Sango had grabbed his ear and yanked.

"We'll be inside," Sango called as she dragged her husband out of sight.

"Are you ready to go back in?" Kagome asked, her face still rivaling the scarlet of InuYasha's firerat.

"Yeah, but maybe we can call it an early night," he answered with a gleam in his eye.

"Works for me," she responded as she took his hand to lead him back towards the door. "The sooner we eat, the sooner we sleep."

InuYasha stopped dead in his tracks, pulling her to a halt with him. "Wench, sleep wasn't what I had in mind."

Kagome grinned. "Me, either."

_***finis***_


End file.
